When Villains Rise (Market of Monsters #3) - Rebecca Schaeffer Page 0,3
dead.
If it went right.
If Kovit wasn’t captured and killed by INHUP first.
If Fabricio cooperated.
If if if. So many variables.
She closed her eyes. Right now, she couldn’t focus on that. One step at a time. She needed to focus on Kovit, on getting him out of this mess Henry had put him in.
Finally, she fidgeted and asked, “Well? What do you think of my idea?”
“I don’t know,” he admitted.
“It’ll work,” she insisted.
Kovit gave her a look, one eyebrow arched in mild judgment.
Nita looked away, wincing slightly. “Sorry.”
It had only been a few hours since they’d had their conversation about Nita pushing her ideas on him, and she was already sliding back into bad habits. If Kovit was hesitant about one of her plans, they were supposed to talk it out. It was, after all, his life on the line. He had the right to reject it.
“Okay.” Nita tried to find the words. “Can you tell me why you don’t like it?”
He weighed his words carefully. “You want to contact my sister.”
“Yes.”
Kovit hadn’t seen his sister in a decade. The last time he’d seen her, he’d been ten, and she’d hid him from the INHUP agents who came and murdered their mother. His sister was human—the zannie genes had skipped her—so she hadn’t been in danger the way Kovit had been. After that, Kovit had been recruited by a mafia group.
His sister became an INHUP agent.
He ran a hand through his hair. “I still can’t believe she’s joined INHUP. It’s something the girl I knew would never do.”
“It’s been a decade.”
“I know.” He paused a moment, and when he spoke, his words were slow and cautious. “That’s why I don’t know if contacting her is a good idea.”
Nita hesitated. “As an INHUP agent, she’ll have access to things we don’t. She might have ways to fix this.”
Of course, none of those ways would be at all legal.
“She might.” He raised his eyes, and for a moment, she thought she could see the cracks beneath the surface, the fracture murdering Henry had made inside him, but his voice betrayed none of his pain, just practicality. “But what if she doesn’t want to?”
“She’s your sister.” Nita’s voice was gentle.
“She was my sister. But the sister I knew would never have joined INHUP.” His voice was soft. “She’s clearly changed since then. What if she’s in favor of the Dangerous Unnaturals List? You’re basing this plan off the assumption that she’ll help me, but what if instead she just wants to hunt me down? We could be giving INHUP more information that will help them kill me.”
Nita understood his reluctance—almost every person he’d cared about had ended up betraying him. Gold had betrayed him. Henry had wanted to use him. Even Nita, who had never betrayed him, still struggled with some parts of him.
She didn’t know if Kovit could take another betrayal on the heels of so many. Better to keep the memory of their happier years as children alive than risk destroying it.
Kovit’s hands shook on his lap, and for once, Nita didn’t think it was because he was eating pain from the other room.
She reached over and put her hand on his. “You won’t have to speak with her. I’ll do it. You don’t even have to meet her if it doesn’t work out.”
He laced his fingers with hers. “But I don’t want to know if it doesn’t work out. I don’t want to know if she says, ‘Good, let him die.’”
Nita was silent a long moment, and then squeezed his hand softly. “Okay.”
He stared at her, as though he wasn’t sure what he was hearing. “Okay?”
“We’ll think of another plan. We’ll find another way to prevent INHUP from making your information public.”
There were other INHUP agents Nita could contact, but unlike Kovit’s sister, they wouldn’t have altruistic motives for helping him. No, for them she’d need proper leverage.
Her mind began spinning plots, a spider in her web of lies and blackmail, trying to figure out a route that would tangle up INHUP and protect Kovit from harm. There were options—especially if she tied it into her plans for Fabricio. But they would be difficult. The timeline would be tight.
Even if Kovit had agreed to meet his sister, they probably would have needed to make backup plans like this anyway. Just in case.
Kovit rose, pulling away from her. He took a few steps back toward Fabricio’s room, toward comfort and pain, familiarity and control. He stopped in the doorway and closed his eyes,